Great essay, via Instapundit.
Lots of good nuggets in here.
"The cure for barbarians within the gates is to educate the barbarian
children. Humans are not born civilized. They acquire civility by living
in civilization, and they learn it as they grow up in it. In the United
States we have had waves of immigrants from areas with entirely
different cultures, some from more civilized cultures than ours, but
many from less, and few in which civilization was based on freedom:
American citizens act civilized because they are civilized, not from
fear of apprehension and punishment."
(Good lesson in here for sharia-based societies as well. Just because they have "elections" does not mean they are democratic, and just because they have a "functioning" country, does not mean they live in a civilized manner.)
"But the way to civilize barbarians is to do it in the schools, from the
earliest grades on: enforcement of discipline, being polite, respectful
deference to authority – not cringing fear, but respectful deference.
But those values have to be instilled, and enforced."
